She grew up in Kankakee, Illinois, and comes from a large musical family. Her older sister Margo is also a singer, but as Reed recently told host John Lemley, she wasn’t always sure that she’d be a singer as well.

 Francine Reed – Originally broadcast October 8, 2014

A Coop With A View: Raising Chickens at Manuel’s Tavern

Many restaurants around Atlanta have embraced localism by getting their meats and produce from area farms or even growing their own vegetables. Manuel’s Tavern, though, has gone a step further by building a chicken coop on their roof. The North Highland Avenue mainstay is now offering organic eggs courtesy of the twenty four chickens living on-premises.

WABE’s Myke Johns paid them a visit and has this story.

Manuel's Tavern Chickens – Originally broadcast January 22, 2014

Think You’re not a Sensation-Seeker? Think Again

They cliff-dive. Run with the bulls. Drive ambulances. Chase tornadoes. We all know thrill-seekers when we meet them.

But even if you’re not an extreme thrill-seeker, there’s still probably some part of the larger concept to which thrill-seeking belongs that applies to you, too.

It’s this wider idea, of “sensation-seeking,” that’s the subject of a new online survey by Emory psychologist Ken Carter. He’s asking people to answer a series of 40 questions to learn what kind of sensation-seeker they are. It’s all to collect material for a new book he’s writing on the concept, aimed at the general public.

WABE’s Kate Sweeney tried something new with Carter and brought us this story.

 Sensation Seeking – Originally broadcast June 12, 2014

Wait, Why Is the CDC in Atlanta?

While the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa hasn’t spread anywhere near Atlanta, it still has brought our city into the headlines.  

That’s because organizations in our region have become leaders in the fight against it. One of these is, of course, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – or the CDC.

If you’ve lived in the area for a while, you’re probably used to Atlanta’s hometown government agency showing up in the news, especially when a disease breaks out. But have you ever wondered why it’s based here in the first place? 

To find the answer, we have to go back to a time when the U.S. was home to a number of deadly diseases, including malaria. 

WABE’s Stephannie Stokes has the story of how the CDC began.

 History of the CDC – Originally aired October 8, 2014

History in the Trees: A Tour of the Doll’s Head Trail

We Atlanta residents may suffer an unusual sort of fatigue.

Living in a place known for continually re-making itself, and for forgetting its own history, many of us almost tire from hearing repeated claims of the “discovery” of “little-known” pieces of that history. I mean, how much forgotten history can there be?

In southeast Atlanta, there’s an entire park built atop such a piece of Atlanta’s past. It was a strange, beguiling combination of nature and history visible right beneath his feet that first attracted Joel Slaton to Constitution Lakes Park. And that’s also what drew the carpenter to transform the place, through his own strange, beguiling folk art.

WABE’s Kate Sweeney brought us this story.

 Constitution Lakes Park – Originally aired October 3, 2014

The Value of Scarcity – Shopping at a Rare Book Showcase

On August 14, A Cappella Books hosted a rare books showcase—bringing together three rare and antiquarian book sellers to put some of their collections on display. The event listing on A Cappella’s web site stated that the guest dealers would have “items priced from 25 dollars to 25 thousand dollars.” WABE’s Myke Johns dropped in on the showcase to get a look at not only these incredibly valuable items, but at who spends thousands of dollars on a book.

Rare Books Showcase – Originally aired August 15, 2014

Meet The Man With Thousands Of Cameras

Most people today, if they want to take a picture, they’ll pull out their smartphone. Or maybe, if it’s a really special occasion, they’ll dust off that ol’ digital point-and-shoot.

“Beautiful City” is WABE’s series about places to get away from Atlanta without leaving the city.

For this story they heading off to the urban forest of the Bush Mountain Outdoor Activity Center. The 40-year-old park, hidden in the middle of a Southwest Atlanta neighborhood, features two miles of trails, a large wooden playground, a cabin-like educational center, and a community garden that sits on the former practice lot of the Atlanta Black Crackers baseball team.

WABE was given a tour of park by environmental education coordinator, Evonne Blythers, who seems to know every bird, tree and insect on the property by name. As you will hear in this story, Evonne is someone who really loves her job.

 Beautiful City: Outdoor Activity Center – Originally aired Sept. 30, 2014

The Doughnut Maker in Decatur

America eats over 10 billion doughnuts each year, but fresh, homemade doughnuts can be hard to find. Maria Moore Riggs started off selling her baked goods at local farmer’s markets, and as soon as she offered doughnuts, they were hard to keep in stock.

Now she runs Revolution Doughnuts in Decatur, where they make them by hand each morning, as we found when we visited them for this Atlanta Sound.

 Doughnut Maker – Originally aired Sept. 26, 2014